Chapter Text
She had always been an insatiable thing.
In her first life, she had been loved, and dearly at that. Always held with adoration, her interests encouraged, and with a big family willing to teach her everything they knew to fulfill her curiosity. Sometimes she could get ahead of herself, not thinking over things or losing interest half-way through a task to focus on something new. But she had been bright, filled with joy, and excitement for the wonders of life.
This life was not that life.
She awakens to a world of green.
Not forest green, but a sickly , acidic, venomous green sludge all around her, liquid encasing her limbs, wires and tubes everywhere.
She tries to move, and sees hands too small, too pale to be her own.
Her own.
What does that mean? She’s aware of distant memories, of knowing this wasn’t right but unable to figure out why.
There is another girl in a tube across from her with chocolate brown curls and she is startled to think that’s what she looks like too. The girl sees how scared she is, and smiles . She knows how painful that is, being hooked up to the same tubes, but smiles anyway.
It’s the first kindness in this world.
She liked her.
The smiley girl-hardly more than a toddler-would make her hands into the shape of hearts, and she would respond with her own fascinated with all the shapes hands could be twisted into. Another boy joins them in their game. He is bold, and uses his very long, dark hair, twisting it into shapes.
001 makes a bird-shape that the others can’t get enough off. She wishes to fly away from here one day.
She looks around.
Rows of tubes, hooked to electrical wires that tunneled away into walls carved from rock. They must be deep underground.
Once, when she was adjusting her breathing tube to be more comfortable he used his long hair to shield the view of the doctor standing in front of his tank, as the doctors hate it when they touch the equipment. The doctor does not like that, and makes the blood extraction worse.
She dubs him raven.
She wonders when she will have the chance to help them back.
She loves them.
The emotion bursts from her and makes her heart swirl, it reaches out to lay over the chakra of Raven and Smiley and the others in the tubes and they all smile .
Children who she knows for a fact have only ever known cruelty and harm, with kindness not even shown among the scientists, and she makes them happy.
She vows right then to always love and protect these children.
001 learns she is the oldest. It only fans the protectiveness in her chest. But despite being the oldest she is not the first out of her tube.
No.
That honor belongs to Smiley.
The girl so full of wonder that when the scientists left the top open she left all by herself to explore! 001 is scared and in awe of Smiley's need to see the world, or even just more of the lab they're in. She had an adventurous soul.
She is brave.
001 will try to be like that.
When scientists come back in to re-seal the tube 001 distracts them so Smiley can slip back in by pounding on the glass of her tube. She gets punished but it's worth it to see her smile.
Later, they've all been taken out of their tubes and are sick at first-contact with the air and need special treatment to adjust. When a doctor is being too mean to Smiley, she leans over and bites him. He flings her off, cursing, and then chuckling as he heals his wounds with green chakra, as sickly as her tank. He picks out one of her baby teeth that got stuck in his arm.
“Well well, the first really is the worst isn’t it, 001?” He laughs.
Cold researchers walk among rows of tube’s she can’t make out clearly, dragging kids out into the cold air, jabbing them with needles, shining flashlights into their eyes, prodding and looking for a reaction. When they don’t get what they want, if the kids aren’t quick enough, they’re punished.
The first time that happens, she pounds on the glass of her tank. She’s scared to be outside of it, because that means having bits taken from you, but her heart hurts when she sees this.
The doctors see the crack she leaves in the tank and eye her like meat.
Smiley and Raven look at her with fear in their eyes, the eyes the doctors are always watching.
It’s fear for her.
They take her out of the tank fully.
Her best guess is that she’s roughly 3 years old, and so are the other oldest children. She can spot some younger batches of children but none older than herself.
These scientists are searching for something.
And will do anything to find it.
They perform Katas, are made to spout off their numbers in a robotic manner, work until they collapse, knead chakra until their hands go numb.
001 pushes herself to her limit and beyond.
She practices throwing shuriken and kunai until her shoulder muscles rips, and then continues. She fights and sparrs with the other children, wincing when taking them down but doing it anyway, as long as the acidic attention is on her and not them.
Once, when she throws Smiley over her hip, 001 is struck by the urge to comfort her. She leans down towards her, and Smiley is confused, eyes wide, but her chakra isn’t scared.
"Subject 002 has failed. Again." Toma-sensei drawls.
She knows 001 would never hurt her on purpose.
001 smooths the hair out of Smiley’s eyes and kissed her forehead, putting all the love she could into that one gesture.
Smiley smiles at her like the sun.
“001 is most impressive, but this sentiment is useless. There are no discernible results.”
She needs to be better !
Everytime 001 looks at the other children, Raven and Smiley in particular, she wonders.
What is her life?
What is her purpose?
Does she have parents like some of the doctors talk about visiting, rays of goodness appearing in their chakra for the first time. It makes 001 long for her old parents.
What is she?
She dreams of flying away like a bird, the whole world shrinking and beautiful far below her, where it can’t hurt her or her family.
Everytime they hurt the children, hurt her , they take blood, they run a diagnostic jutsu that sets alight every nerve in her body and makes her teeth ache, and they shine pen-lights into their eyes for several long moments.
It’s so painful she wishes she stayed dead, wishes she could make herself dead, but she can’t leave her new family behind, as much of a mockery of a family they are.
“Subjects are still not presenting the Kekkei Genkai, Toma-sensei.” A doctor with cold gray eyes and even colder blond hair intones.
“It might be similar to Kimimaro-sama’s, needing precise chakra control. Have patience, Rinka-sensei.” Toma-sensei chides. He’s a big man with warm-toned skin and the easy smile of a shark.
“I do have patience. Orochimaru-Sama and Kabuto-sama do not .”
“Hm, true. It could also be like Jugo, where they aren’t born with the ability to control it.”
“He unlocked his under traumatic conditions. We may need to step up our pressure on them. Orochimaru-sama might be happy about potentially acquiring the Uchiha, but the worsening of Kimimaro-sama’s condition has him on edge.”
“He should know how hard this is, the original bloodline experiments in Konoha only yielded one Mokuton user. Besides, the experiments are still in their infancy-Literally!” Toma-sensei chuckles as he gestures to her strapped to the table below, and the toddlers and babies either submerged or tied down also.
She can’t help the flare of anger and protectiveness that rises in her.
“Ooo, Subject 001 didn’t like to hear that.” Menma-sensei drawls in amusem*nt as he jerks the needle in her vein around harder than he needs to. He’s a newer addition, more fighter than doctor, and it means he loves training the kids. He will hit them until they don’t get up, heal them, and then keep doing it.
“This is taking forever! Are we sure these experiments even have that bloodline?” Menma-sensei snarls in frustration. “Wouldn’t they have shriveled up into trees or something like the original bloodline experiments did?”
001 is struck by the need to die.
What good is she if she can’t unlock this bloodline, if she can’t be good enough to take the attention off of her family?
She jerks her arm just as Menma-sensei skews the needle sideways, and it tears open her blood vessels.
He curses, and doctors rush over, screaming and yelling. The amount of blood coming out is unreal, and she can only watch it in a distant fascination.
001 sees her family, strapped down and in tubes, crying as she is fatally injured. Smiley has the saddest expression 001 has ever seen on her, and Raven is uncaring of his hair as he thrashes so hard some of it is ripped out from getting caught on the table. Their wrists are rubbed raw in their desperation to get to her, and 001 can feel their worry borne of love.
001 realizes she had made a mistake.
She would live for her loved ones, and only die if it was for them .
A doctor she had seen before rushes forward. He was always silently watching, smirking when the other doctors edged around him in fear. His presence was powerful, and mean, and oddly blank. Like a piece of paper that could have anything written on it.
He heals her ripped arm as easily as he takes a breath. His chakra feels like ice being pushed into her coils.
His eyes are cold behind his glasses.
“K-Kabuto-sama, It was an acc-”
“Menma-sensei. What did I say about being careful with our resource-dependent experiments? ”
Menma-sensei begins to hyperventilate.
001 would be enjoying his panic if only Kabuto-sensei’s oppressive chakra wasn’t leaking killing intent everywhere.
Menma-sensei tries to run.
Kabuto-sama cuts his ankle tendons with chakra scalpels in a motion too quick to see.
“I’ll tell!” Menma-sensei shrieks, his shinobi prowess useless in the face of Kabuto, “I’ll tell Konoha that you stole DNA from the-”
“They already know.” Kabuto-sama smirks. The other doctors have long since left to avoid being killed too, and 001 can tell from the feedback that the mic’s aren’t on.
No one is listening in.
Except her.
“What-”
“Where do you think we got the DNA from?” Kabuto-sama drawls.
Menma-sensei is so surprised that he forgets he’s supposed to be crawling and begging for his life.
He openly gawks up at Kabuto-sama, in complete shock, chakra frozen with the force of it.
“Of course the Konoha elders would want to revive their extinct bloodline. We were commissioned by them. And even if you get the word out, I’ve gathered so much blackmail against Konoha that they would be forced to defend us anyway. But. Not that you’ll be telling anyone.”
001’s world fades to black, and the last thing she sees is the terror in Menma-sensei’s eyes as Kabuto cuts out his heart. It beats in his open palm, the gate of death screaming out chakra.
Kabuto-sama crushes it.
And then looks at her. She's overwhelmed in terror as he walks closer.
“You little experiments sure do like to keep us waiting, don’t you? If you don’t hurry up we’ll have to scrap this current generation and start over again.” Kabuto-sama said neutrally, eyes as sharp and cutting as his scalpels.
She once again falls into dreams of flying away.
She continues to grow.
So do the other kids.
Her love for them makes her heart ache because she can do nothing but make their captors happy, keep their attention on her to protect them.
Another woman comes, a doctor, or sensei as this world calls them. Her name is Kayo, she’s from a place called Kumo and her chakra is very sad to be here. She’s a ball of guilt and horror at what she’s being forced to do.
“I’m a fertility doctor, not a bloodline thief, I swore I wouldn’t be like the others.” Her voice trembles as she draws blood. 001 likes when Kayo-sensei does it best. When the others do it, they take so much that 001 can’t dodge hits in practice. She’s always gentle and never takes more than necessary. Sometimes if she can get away with it she will hug 001 and kiss the ouchie, and her forehead.
“You’re from Kumo, and frankly, so is much of our reproductive equipment and medical techniques. You could say it's in your blood.” Rinka-sensei says neutrally.
“What we do is dishonorable, monstrous ! These are children -”
“ These are insults against the natural process. They dishonor life itself.” Rinka-sensei says dryly. “The least they can do is get us results and make our benefactors very happy.”
001 squirms.
She doesn't know who she is yet in the context of this world, but none of that sounded good and it makes her young heart nervous. She wants to reach over and hug Smiley and Raven and the others, to make all of them feel better
“Quit the theatrics! There’s been enough of that at the other bases with Orochimaru’s latest vessel, now that Kimimaro-sama is dead.” Toma-sensei chides.
“Ah yes, I’ve heard about the second to last Uchiha.” Rinka-sensei’s interest breaks through her normally bland face. “I’ve heard he’s making waves.Taking on hundreds of opponents Orochimaru-gathered for him, to train, yet leaving them all alive? What for? His whole life is shaped around killing his older brother so it’s not that he has an issue with killing.” Rinka-sensei states.
“I have no clue, but did you hear what he did to that one Kumo missing nin during all that?” Toma-sensei’s voice drops into a faux whisper.
“What did he do?” Kayo-sensei asks reluctantly. She hates the other doctors, 001 can feel it in her chakra as plain as she can feel the love from Smiley and Raven, but even she is drawn into the air of power and mystery surrounding the last two Uchiha, Sasuke-sama especially.
He was all anyone could talk about.
It was intimidating for 001 to think of.
“He left them all alive and banged up, but nothing they couldn’t recover from. Then….this one Kumo-nin insulted the Uchiha clan, and dishonored them.” Toma-sensi says
Kayo-sensei gasps, and Rinka sensei’s eyes widen almost unnoticeably in shock.
“What a fool.” Rinka-sensei states blandly, a hint of a sneer in her voice, and a bit of mean excitement in her chakra, the way it gets whenever she cooks up another cruel method of trying to unlock their mysterious bloodline. “What did Uchiha-sama do?”
“The most brutal, humiliating beatdown not seen since Kabuto-sama subdued Kimimaro-sama using his medical chakra to manipulate his own bones against him. It was brutal . The Kumo-nin ended up crippled from chakra exhaustion, a fate worse than death . He ended up killing himself.” Toma-sensei says, laughing.
Kayo-sensei is pale, hands shaking. Rinka-sensei is amused.
“Both of the last two Uchiha are insane. A mass killer who killed his own kind, and a kid nutty enough to come here willingly!” Toma-sensei exclamins.
001 is very nervous by now.
She hopes to never meet either of the two surviving Uchiha.
Hopefully they will end each other.
001 immediately feels terrible thinking such things.
Orochimaru-sama is a name that sounds familiar and not just because he was here when she was still an infant, poking and prodding and watching with snake-eyes. He’s the most powerful person anyone here knows, and if he’s taken on an apprentice, it’s likely he’ll be just as cruel as his master.
It reminds her of something from her past life, the fuzzy memories that faded with each passing day.
“Do you think Sasuke-sama knows what he’s getting into? What we’re doing? Most people are dragged here kicking and screaming, if they’re even still alive.” Toma-sensei muses.
“Clearly he doesn't.” Rinka-sensei smirks coldly, flicking the needle in 001’s arm and smirking wider as she squeals in pain. It causes Smiley and Raven to peer over in concern at her, remembering the last time and she tries to reassure them. She can talk but doesn’t quite have sentences down yet and doesn't want to talk around the doctors anyway, but she mouths ‘I love you’ to the other kids, and they settle down. “These defective experiments have borne no fruit yet. Perhaps I should let this needle slip again as punishment for my wasted time.”
001 loves them so much that it is effortless to smile at them through the pain.
Kayo-sensi smacks Rinka’s hand away, and Rinka-sensei moves so fast 001 can’t track her. She holds Kayo-sensei up by her throat.
“Know your place.” Rinka says, red lips curled into a sneer. “You forget yourself. If these subjects can’t activate the bloodline they will be disposed of and replaced, for however long the reproductive DNA lasts, and if they can be scrapped, so can you !”
“We’re all dead anyway if this gets out, all the elemental nations will put aside their differences to kill us specifically!” Kayo-sensei thrashes. “What we’re doing is a sick lie!” Kayo-sensei gasps, desperate eyes locking onto 001’s own. “These children are living a lie !”
Oh.
So that's what she is
A lie.
Even Kayo-sensei thinks so, the one adult to show them kindness.
She is living a lie in a world that isn’t supposed to be real, one that she has distant dreams of from a past life, a world filled with love, so much love , but so much injustice, and pain.
Her breathing quickens.
She breaks out in a cold sweat.
The heart monitor starts shrieking in alarm.
The doctors stop fighting. They all turn to look at her. Even Rinka-sensei is open-mouthed in shock, and for once Toma-sensei doesn't have a sarcastic quip or one-liner to sling at them. Kabuto-sama bursts into the room, round glasses flashing in excitement. There’s a maniacal grin on his normally composed face as his eyes meet her own.
The world is so full of detail .
She can make out every single ringlet in Smiley's beautiful hair, the freckles on Raven’s face, and every single child in the gestation tubes behind them as they peer at her with young eyes.
Kabuto’s shoulders shake with laughter.
“Finally!” He chuckles as everyone else’s chakra is frozen in horror and awe.
001 turns to look at herself in the mirror, a million possibilities running through her head, and none of them register as she makes eye-contact with her reflection and freezes.
The world falls away.
The cries of confusion from the children, the horror from Kayo-sensei, the cheers from Tamo-sensei all fade and she can only hear her heartbeat as her own gaze locks herself into place.
She pitches forward, all the chakra training in the world not enough to sustain such a powerful bloodline at five years old.
At last.
Her Sharingan has awakened.
